Nichrome Hot Wire Cutter

The hot wire foam cutter is a tool used to cut styrofoam polystyrene plexiglass etc.

Nichrome hot wire cutter.

The device consists of a thin metal wire often made of stainless steel or nichrome or a thicker wire preformed into a desired shape which is heated via electrical resistance. Nichrome a contains 80 nickel and 20 chromium. It has high corrosion resistant and melting point hence it is used in electric appliances and tools. Bend the nichrome wire three inches from each end.

Nichrome hot wire cutter for acrylic. It s relatively cheap durable and able to be used for a variety of applications. Nichrome wire is the optimal wire choice for foam cutters for a variety of reasons but particularly because it is resistant against corrosion and oxidation at very high temperature. Hot wire foam cutter power supply design.

There are two readily available types of wire nichrome a nichrome c. Type a and type c are the common types of nicr coils. Acrylic sheet is always a go to for me when building something. All metals expand with heat so the nichrome wire at cutting temperature also expands and gets longer.

The tension factor. These cutters are expensive to buy but you can build your own inexpensive hot foam cutter that uses an automotive battery charger as a power supply. Larger diameter wires are also used for very long cutters such as 8 or 10 feet. Nichrome is wound in coils to a certain electrical resistance and current is passed through it to produce heat.

For the past few years i ve been using a dremel rotary tool to cut the plexiglass which gets messy. You can read about all kinds of things people do to power their hot wire foam cutter including things like running 110v through a light bulb in series with the foam cutter battery chargers dimmer switches variacs wall warts batteries and so on. The device works by passing low voltage electricity through a nichrome wire causing the wire to heat up to about 200 c. The nichrome cutting wire reaches the temperature of a few hundred celcius degrees in few seconds.

Make a hot wire foam cutter the hot wire foam cutter is a tool used to cut polystyrene foam and similar types of materials. Nichrome wire has high tensile strength and a high melting point. A 12 piece of 14 gauge nichrome wire requires only 1 9 volts but almost 12 amps. The answer is a hot foam cutter which uses a heated wire to slice through the foam.

Nichrome wire nicr is the optimal cutting wire choice for foam cutting equipment for a variety of reasons but particularly because it is resistant against corrosion and oxidation at very high temperature. Nichrome c contains 60 nickel 16 chromium 24 iron.